Nina and her teammates are medical students at New York University, studying to become doctors. When the COVID-19 pandemic reached New York City and residents were forced to isolate themselves, she and her peers worried about healthcare professionals and ordinary people across the city who struggled to access accurate and timely information about the virus and how to stay safe. Through Peace First's COVID-19 Rapid Response grant program, Nina and her team received a $250 grant to cover costs to develop and maintain the NYCOVID Connect website and resources for the broader New York community.

Ramni remembers having panic attacks before her exams. Even as a little girl, she recalls overwhelming bouts of anxiety and stress due to the pressures of life and school. This inspired her to pursue a career in science to better understand how stress and anxiety can impact people and learn about ways to address it. The more Ramni learned about stress, anxiety and panic attacks, the more she realized her experiences as a young person were not unique. She realized that many young people, especially those in her community shared the same struggles. 

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Grace worried about the significant numbers of young people,specifically those in high school and college, who have had summer experiential opportunities, that are critical to being fully ready to be problem solvers in the working world,disrupted. Young people are fully immersed in the problems relevant to their communities brought on by COVID-19, but are not engaged as meaningful participants in addressing those challenges because of their age.

Duke faced a lot of challenges growing up, with an absent father leaving Duke’s mother behind as the main breadwinner. His mother provided for the family by selling groceries in the market while Duke’s grandmother attended to him and his sister. His grandmother was often sick, causing Duke to miss school at least twice a week. Despite the challenges, Duke managed to get into university to study finance and banking. It was there that he met Brian, a friend who introduced him to the ideas of active citizenship and changemaking. Duke began to think about how he can apply what he learned to help his community, but it wasn’t until he witnessed a harrowing incident that he decided to become a changemaker.

Babatunde decided to introduce a mobile eye care service - first of its kind to the Ishor community. This service would make eye care affordable to the marginalized members of the community. He would also use this service to educate and spread awareness on how to prevent eye diseases. The service, being mobile, also meant that these members did not have to worry about how they would get to clinics where eye care services would be available to them. Instead, the eye care service would be brought to them.

The experiences of incarceration alone are not the only punishment people recieve. For too many, no matter the offense they committed, employment opportunities are extremely limited or nonexistent. This is especially true for women in Egypt coming out of incarceration, something Hana couldn’t help but notice. Seeing the stigma these women were facing motivated Hana to learn more about the experiences of these women and better understand the situation they were being released to. For Hana, these women were victims of an injustice that was compounding on itself; their inability to find proper employment was forcing them into more and more dangerous situations.

What do you do when you realize you’re inheriting all the best and worst traits of your parents? Anyama Akomi Jonathan was caught up in all the freedoms that going away to university brings. He attended the local schools in the rural villages of Adjumani District in Uganda all his life. So when he found out he had been admitted to Makerere University medical school, it was like a whole new world was at his fingertips.

Mafiya, 22, was born and raised in a small village in Bangladesh, where talking about menstruation or sexual health rights is highly stigmatized. Mafiya was 15 when she got her first period and she remembers not feeling comfortable talking about it with her family, or even her mother. Cultural norms made the topic a taboo where even discussing it with family members feels like a loaded endeavor. Mafiya had little to no knowledge about menstrual hygiene management. She wasn’t aware about the use of sanitary napkins or other menstrual products. Sanitary napkins were not even available in her village since they were expensive to purchase. Young girls and women in Mafiya's village used washable cloths as an alternative. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has had unimaginable consequences to lives across the globe. And while it will take years to fully understand the scope of the damage this pandemic has done to people and society, for Mayumi and Trevor, both studying at Cambridge, the effects on libraries could not be ignored. They saw this moment as an opportunity to rethink what a library can offer to its community. They envisioned a “multimedia website project that will be participatory and collaborative in nature”, which will help combat the limited representation and diversity many libraries struggle with.

Moving from home to attend college is often an overwhelming and difficult experience for students. For many, beyond the academic concerns and responsibilities, the idea of making new friends and finding a community of support can be the most difficult part of going to university. And without them, university life can be more challenging.